Euro Economic roundup - Consumer Price Index, ZEW Business Survey. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

April 15, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Euro Economic roundup - Consumer Price Index, ZEW Business Survey.

News released out of Europe today was filled with inflation data as France, Italy and the U.K. had Consumer Price Index numbers released. The U.K. also had house price news released and Germany had the monthly ZEW economic survey come out today which measures economic sentiment among financial experts. Highlights of the releases are below.

EUR - France Consumer Price Index data was released by Insee and showed that cpi inflation increased by 0.8 percent in March. This is 3.5 percent above the level of March 2007(EU harmonized) and follows an increase of 0.2 percent in February. Clothing, footwear and energy price increases contributed to the rise for the month. Italy's monthly consumer price index data increased by 0.5 percent in March according to data from ISTAT. This matched February's monthly increase of 0.5 percent. The cpi annual rate was grew to 3.3 percent which marked an 11 year high. Contributing to the cpi inflation rise was increases in food and energy costs.

U.K - Inflation data out of the U.K. today showed that CPI annual inflation was 2.5 percent in March according to a report by National Statistics. March's 2.5 percent annual inflation level was the same as February's and was a bit below economic forecasts that expected annual inflation to be 2.6 percent. Month-over-month changes showed that CPI inflation grew by 0.4 percent for the month compared with a growth of 0.7 percent in February. Core cpi inflation, minus energy and food cost, came in at an annual rate of 1.2 percent which was unchanged from February.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' house price survey was also released out of the U.K. and showed that house prices hit historically low levels in March. The house price survey fell for the 8th straight month and hit the lowest level on record since the survey began in 1978. The March survey showed that "78.5% more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall than a rise in house prices, an increase from 65.7% in February." This level of fall in home prices is now the lowest level on record surpassing the previous low in June of 1990.

Germany - The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment was released today and showed that economic sentiment declined in April by 8.7 points. April's decline registered a -40.7 index score and follows March's -32.0 score. The ZEW survey report highlighted high prices and high rates of inflation as affecting the economy and beginning to hamper economic growth.

ZEW President Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Franz commented in the report, "New record highs of the euro and the oil price have reduced expectations again. However, at the moment there is no reason for exaggerated pessimism. A growth rate for Germany of 1.7 percent this year is still realistic". The ZEW report is based on the survey of approximately 350 financial experts who provide opinions on Germany's future economic expectations in 6 months.

The euro made a new all time high exchange rate against the British pound sterling today in currency trading. The euro traded at the new record low of 80.65 pence per euro after the U.K. house price news was released this morning.

Tags: consumer price index, inflation, eur, france, italy, uk, gbp, zew survey

Blog Home